The properties of chitosan and paracetamol in acidic water mixture by viscosity study for pharmaceutical and biomedical applications

Abstract

Paracetamol (PC), the active ingredient in Efferalgan, is an effervescent tablet medicine used in the treatment of mild-to-moderate pain. Chitosan (CH) is a biopolymer having immense structural possibilities for chemical and mechanical modifications to generate novel properties, functions and applications, especially in the pharmaceutical area. The dynamic viscosities, η, have been measured, and investigated for the mixture of CH in acidic water and paracetamol aqueous solutions over the entire range of the temperature 20–65°C, and concentrations of 1–10 g/l. The main objective of our research described here was to determine the viscometric properties of biopolymer solutions of CH in PC, as a function of the volume fraction fCH in the CH and PC mixture and temperatures. We identified three main concentration regimes, corresponding to a dilute regime, a critical regime and the semi-dilute regime. Our results showed that the CH/PC is a promising mixture for use in pharmaceutical and antibacterial applications. The chitosan shows antimicrobial activity against various microorganisms, including bacteria.